


Oil and Water

by Artsyot (DasOvertaker)



Category: Wicked - Schwartz/Holzman
Genre: Angst, Best Friends, Drama, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Romance, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Friends to Lovers, Gelphie, Mutual Pining, My First Fanfic, and they were ROOMMATES, and they were roommates!!!, don’t know what i’m doing, have mercy on me, they deserve each other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2020-12-27 03:04:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21111644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DasOvertaker/pseuds/Artsyot
Summary: They say oil and water can't mix, but opposites attract. These two unlikely roommates find it in their hearts to find friendship - and perhaps even love - in each other. Will Galinda and Elphaba realize their feelings for each other before their lives are ripped asunder by their visit to the Wizard or will they go on believing loving to be loathing? How long will Elphaba be able to hide her strange allergy from her roommate? Will Galinda succeed in making Elphaba Popular? Gelphie fic, starts after the Ozdust ball, based on the musical and not on the book as I haven't read the book (yet). Fluff, Angst, Mutual Pining and romance ensues! Elphaba starts off shorter than Galinda because I thought it'd be amusing. I'll see how long and far I take this fic but knowing me I might drop it with the slightest loss of interest so be warned I'm not the most consistent writer. Reviews and critiques appreciated, I don't write much so I like seeing what I can do better.





	1. First Friendship

**Author's Note:**

> My first serious attempt at a fanfiction, so be warned! I've read things about the original book (haven't actually read it yet), about how Elphaba was so allergic to water it was like acid to her, while in the musical it was just a fantastical rumor, but I didn't want to do either, so I used an actual condition called Aquagenic urticaria, which basically is where any external skin in contact with water gets rashes and hives within minutes of contact with water but goes away after a few hours. An itchy and painful condition, but not a deadly or life threatening one. I went rather closely with the events of the musical for this chapter but that will change later on when I alter more significant events. I'll see how long and far I take this fic but knowing me I might drop it with the slightest loss of interest so be warned I'm not the most consistent writer. Reviews and critiques appreciated, I don't write much so I like seeing what I can do better. I do plan to write more for this though!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elphaba and Galinda finally find it in themselves to become friends...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter of what I hope to be a several chapter fic. Kinda short I suppose, it's been a long time since I've written anything more than a school essay or a few paragraph excerpt of exposition so I'm rather rusty, gonna start shorter and maybe hopefully build myself up to longer segments. Again I'm really rusty at writing like this so if you have any critique or advice feel free to tell me (as long as it is constructive). Gelphie is love Gelphie is life!

“Elphaba, are all munchkinlanders as short as you?”

Elphaba looks up from her textbook as she takes notes at her desk, trying to catch up on her notes for the next week. Galinda is staring at her from her bed with that annoyingly warm smile on her face. Ugh, what does she want This time? Was getting laughed at at that ball not enough mischief for her? She must still be pitying her.

“I’m actually tall for a munchkinlander...why do you ask?” She’s been quick to learn that seemingly every time Galinda asks her something, she has some ulterior motive to mess with her, ever since she gave her that hat that made her the laughingstock of the ozdust ball earlier that day....

“Oh, I was just wondering! I knew Boq is short but I haven’t met all that many munchkinlanders outside your folks and theirs!”

“The old money in Munchkinland are tall, as my late mother and grandfather are. Most everyone else are short like Boq. Nessa….if she could walk, would be tall. I just haven’t hit that growth spurt yet, I hope.” Elphaba turns back to her note taking, hoping Galinda will leave her to her studying for her Life Sciences class.

Galinda sits quietly, staring at her short roommate, in what must be fascination. The longer she’s known this feisty green girl, the more her antics and appearance have grown on her. Her sharp defined cheekbones and jaw that could cut steel, that surprisingly romantic hawk-like nose, her piercing brown eyes, those dainty long fingers turning the page. She’s actually not at all ugly if you get past the mean green factor. She’s very regal even with her short stature. Oh, she’s looking back at Galinda now, she caught her staring!

“What do you want Galinda?”

Galinda quickly turns her face away to hide the flush creeping into her cheeks. Dammit, her roommate is so perceptive! “Nothing, I was just zoning out is all! Don’t mind me!”

“I could feel you staring right at me, you don’t fool me. Is there something on my face?” Elphaba squints suspiciously at her roommate who’s turned away from her. Is she ashamed to look upon her face honestly? You blonde airhead!

After several seconds, Galinda slowly turns back to her with a smaller smile on her face. Every time Elphaba looks her in the eyes she gets this strange feeling, that feeling she thought was loathing when they first met, but perhaps this is something different than hatred? She gets butterflies looking into her chocolate brown eyes. Focus Galinda, she asked you a question!

Galinda giggles nervously, trying to hide her flushed cheeks with a hand. “No, it’s just your face! It’s so...distinctive!”

“Ugly, you mean? You don’t have to lie to me Galinda, I know anyone would find it hard to find any beauty in me. It doesn’t hurt my feelings.” But it does, it hurts her feelings immensely, though she won’t outwardly admit it. And she’s still staring and covering her mouth to hide her malicious laughter!

Galinda puts her hand down and clenches it into a fist - she’s got to do something about her roommate’s self esteem, it’s in a hole and is steadily digging deeper! “No, you’re not ugly like you think you are Elphaba! Green doesn’t equal ugly! I don’t care what other people think, I think you face is elegant!”

...elegant? But look at her, with her threadbare frock and well-worn work boots and drab straight hair and thick glasses, how is that elegant? And she may be tall for a munchkin, but she’s still short enough for her head to only come up to Galinda’s chest! She sighs heavily at Galinda and turns her head away to look back at her notes.

“I don’t believe you Galinda, no matter how hard you try to convince me that you think that. But I appreciate the sentiment of you trying to cheer me up…”

After a few more seconds of silence, Elphaba hears the rustling of sheets and rapid footsteps until she finds herself nearly knocked over in a hug by Galinda. What in Oz’s name Galinda?! What’s gotten into her, she usually doesn’t want to even touch her with a ten foot pole!

“Stop being so harsh on yourself Miss Elfie, with some new clothes and makeup you’d make a proper regal woman! The kind men fear yet want to step on them! And I mean that as a compliment!”

As Elphaba tries to shove Galinda off of her, she becomes painfully aware that Galinda is hugging her face right into her chest - she knows it’s just from how much taller Galinda is but it still causes her face to flush into violet when she finally shoves her off.

“Galinda, warn me before doing stuff like that! You know I’m touch averse most of the time!”

Galinda only catches a glimpse of her roommate’s flushed face before Elphaba slides out of her desk chair and steps out of her reach. Galinda pouts at her, just let her be nice for once!

“Miss Elfie, you know if you want to have friends you have to let them in first. And I want to be your friend! I’m serious!”

Elphaba stares at Galinda, nearly speechless, before hardening her gaze again. She’s not so easy to trust. “Why would you Want to be my friend? We barely tolerate each other as roommates, how does that equate to friendship for you?”

“Listen I know the hat was at first mean spirited but I think it actually does look good on you! It’s striking! And we got the whole ballroom dancing like you!”

“Because you felt bad for me!”

“....Miss Elfie....please....I’m offering my hand in friendship to you, you might as well take it!” Galinda, still determined to salvage a friendship with this green girl, holds a hand out to her. After staring at her hand and then back at Galinda’s staring face, Elphaba nervously takes it.

“....if you really want to be my friend, then I suppose I can tolerate you-!”

“Great!!! And now that we’re friends, I think I’ll make you my new project!” Galinda pulls Elphaba out of her chair and onto her bed so she can sit by her. Galinda giggles with glee as all her ideas swim in her mind of the makeovers and girl’s nights she could do with miss Elfie! Whether Elphaba wants it or not, she’s gonna be made Popular!

* * *

Elphaba doesn’t know how all this makeup and hairstyling will help her popularity prospects since the entire student body is already prejudiced against her for her greenness, but to humor her bubbly roommate she’s tossing her hair back like Galinda does. She even found her one article of clothing that isn’t some dark shade of blue or gray or black - a white long sleeved shirt with blue accents on the collar and hem. That’ll do. And she’ll even wear that pink hair clip Galinda let her borrow. Hm…..well, maybe she was onto something. She does feel prettier like this. Pretty enough for Galinda? No, of course not, but prettier nonetheless.

It’s been hard enough as it is hiding Galinda’s effect on Elphaba. She’s beautiful, Elphaba knows she’s beautiful, Galinda knows she’s beautiful, and it doesn’t help that she's so comfortable in her skin she’ll undress without even telling Elfie to look away! She must have caught on by now that she doesn’t look away from how many times she’s nearly been caught staring at Glinda’s perfect porcelain shoulders and bared back at she changed from her day clothes into her nightgown. Ugh, she hates to admit it, but Elphaba can’t deny her internal attraction to her perfect roommate. Leave it to blondie to make even women’s hearts flutter at her face, her perfect curls, her- stop that train of thought right now Elphaba Thropp! What would father say if he knew what you thought? Perverse!

Shaking those feelings of attraction and revulsion off, another thing sticks in her head. That stupid nickname Galinda calls her. No one uses a nickname for her unless it’s malicious or family. But…. it feels nice to have something new and Not malicious to be called by. She has a friend, even if it’s a shallow one. Her first friend ever! And shouldn’t she want to impress that friend?

Elphaba is pulled out of her thoughts by Galinda clearing her throat across the room. It’s morning now, they both barely got a wink of sleep from Galinda’s makeover excitement, and soon they’ll have to head to class. Seems blondie is having trouble with a clasp on a necklace.

“Elfie, could you help me out with this please?”

“You’ve put it on by yourself just fine before.”

“I know but this morning it’s giving me trouble!”

Elphaba huffs and gets off her bed to walk over and fix the clasp for her. This close, Galinda can feel her new friend’s breath on her back as she fiddles with the clasp, her fingers brushing against her warm skin. She suppresses a shiver and instead smiles and whirls around once the necklace is properly on her.

“Thank you Elfie, I really appreciate it! Do you mind if I hug you before we both run off to our classes?”

Blue eyes lock with brown, Elphaba slowly blinks at the request. Not only does Galinda apparently want to hug her, but she’s asking permission to? No one’s ever been that considerate to her before, she must remember what she said about being touch averse last night. But if Elfie’s being honest with herself, she’d be comfortable in Galinda’s embrace all day. So she gives her silent answer of pulling Galinda into a hug first, her face turned to the side so as to not muffle herself in her chest.

Galinda squeaks with joy as she pulls her friend into a tight warm hug, overjoyed she’s already warming up to her. They’re friends now! And now that she knows that Elfie doesn’t like being touched most of the time - who can blame her - she’ll make sure to ask from now on!

After the two pull away and exchange a look that lasts a bit too long to be fleeting, they both awkwardly turn away from each other to gather their books for class and head out. As they’re nearing the door, a knock is heard, and Galinda opens it to see two from her circle of friends are there waiting for her. The two outside make faces of disgust at Elphaba before Galinda distacts them and leads them away to class. That leaves Elphaba to walk to her life sciences class alone, like she usually does, except this time with a slight change of appearance from Galinda’s prettifying.

* * *

“Wow, you…..You’ve been Galindafied.” Fiyero walks around the new look Elphaba with interested eyes, perhaps even a twinkle of attraction? How did the blondie convince greenie here to go along with this? Did she bribe her?

“Yes, I suppose that’s one way to describe this look. I’m trying out something new is all. Galinda wouldn’t leave me alone until I obliged her.” Can this boy please go bother someone else? She’s not interested in the slightest, no matter how attractive he is.

“.....it looks good on you, green bean! Better than whatever you usually wear!” She hears a few snickers from other students and can feel herself stiffening at the oncoming heckling. This didn’t really help at all, like she suspected.

Before the light bullying can continue, a new man walks into the classroom. Where’s Dr. Dillamond? “Sorry class, but your previous professor has been discharged due to the new laws in place from the Wizard about the Animals. I will be your new professor today. We will be discussing-“

Dillamond, fired?! She knew something bad was happening in Oz but to get to her only other close to friend so soon?! Elphaba stands up out of her seat and glares defiantly at the new teacher. “Why is he being let off? He’s done nothing wrong! This is wrong-!”

“Sit down now young lady- oh my Oz, why are you so green?!” The new teacher gawks at her, of course he would.

She turns her chin up at him and glares with as much vitriol as she can muster. “Why are they getting rid of Dillamond?! He’s a good professor, a smart man, he deserves none of this cruelty!”

“Animals are better SEEN not HEARD young lady! Now sit down or I will send you to the headmistress for disobedience!!!”

Slowly she shrinks back into her seat, then flinches when a sudden hand grasps her shoulder. Fiyero is glaring with her.

The man pulls out a covered cage from his luggage and places it on the table, his malicious glint in his eye returning. “Now, the Wizard has made some new innovations in technology. We call this-“

The man removes the cover to reveal a cowering lion cub locked inside. Many in the room including Elphaba and Fiyero gasp. “-An Animal Cage. Made to keep these animals safe and secure where they can’t hurt us.”

Elphaba speaks up again, her face flushing violet with anger. “Let that poor cub go!!! This is wrong! They’re as sentient as we are, they shouldn’t be locked in cages!!!!”

“Now now, let me explain this! The Wizard mandated this himself to keep Animals SAFE!!! Safe from needing to learn those powers of speech, but still be seen safe and happy in captivity. You see here-“

Before Elphaba even realizes what she’s doing, she’s rushing up to the cage and pulling it away from the man. The entire room starts to shake, her magic is acting up again! The man is on the floor convulsing, the other students are stunned, but Fiyero runs after her seemingly unharmed by her magical outburst.

“Hey greenie, where do you plant to take that?! You’ll need to hide and release it somewhere safe!”

“I know that, but I don’t know Where!!!”

Out they run out of the building, past the courtyards, until they’re within the treeline. Finally she stops to catch her breath, and softly puts the cage down with the still terrified cub. Poor baby!

Fiyero catches up to her and puts his hands on his knees to stay on his feet as he catches his breath. “Okay, we’re both going to be in trouble if we’re gone for long. Let me find a place to take this thing. You care more about your grades than me, you should go back.”

“This was my idea in the first place, you just followed me!”

“I know that! But I bet I have a better layout of this place than you do, I’m the slacker that sneaks around campus you know! Let me take the cub somewhere safe!” He gently picks the cage up while maintaining eye contact with her. After a long pause and exchange of glances, she nods.

“Take him somewhere safe, please. Thank you for helping me Fiyero, I mean it.”

And with that she runs off back to campus as he runs further into the forest, looking for the perfect spot to hide this poor creature.

* * *

Storm clouds are gathering over Shiz as Elphaba hurriedly makes her way back to campus. Fiyero will lead the guards and angry professor off on a wild goose chase long enough to forget she was the one that started the conflict, hopefully. A crack of thunder echos over the college, and with fear in her eyes, Elphaba starts dashing towards the dormitory entrance. Please get in before getting soaked please get in before getting soaked - OOF!!!

Elphaba finds herself sprawled on the ground after colliding with her roommate, papers flying everywhere. A raindrop of water lands squarely on her nose, causing her to grimace. The last thing she needs to deal with today is breaking out in hives from the rain.

“Oh-!!! I’m so sorry, Elfie is that you?!” Galinda scrambles to her feet to grab all her papers and classwork and stuff it back into her bag before the rain can hurt it. Elphaba groans as she pulls herself back to her feet and brushes the dirt off her dress. Another raindrop hits her, on her arm, and within seconds her usually green skin darkens to a sickly purple bump.

Before Galinda can say anything more, Elphaba shoves past her and slams the doors to the dormitory as she goes. Ugh, it itches and stings, but she’ll live. She’s not deathly allergic to water, it just gives her painful itchy hives. Aquagenic urticaria was what her doctors called it, it wasn’t life threatening, just very uncomfortable. Luckily it only affects her outer skin and not her insides, not being able to drink water would be a nightmare indeed.

Galinda follows after her, wondering what’s gotten her roommate into such a stressed frenzy. Sure she broods a lot, but this was more than brooding! “Elfie wait up, what’s wrong?! It’s just a bit of rain outside! And doesn’t your class not finish for another 20 minutes?”

“I ran out of class! They’re getting rid of Dr. Dillamond, Galinda, I can’t stand it!”

“Dr. Dillamond?! Why for? Is it because he’s- oh no! I’m so sorry Elfie!”

Galinda runs after her until they both reach their dorm room. Elphaba nearly slammed the door in her face but managed to stop it and let Galinda in before closing it softly. As soon as the door closed behind them, Elphaba rushes into the bathroom and slams the door. Trembling inflamed fingers open vials of oils and pool them onto a washcloth to soothe her rashing skin. If she can keep the affected areas hidden for the next hour, it will fade away and no one will be able to see it. The last person she needs to see with this condition is her roommate! Right when they were starting to warm up to each other and this happens!

Elphaba’s startled out of her pain induced thoughts by Galinda knocking on the bathroom door. “Elfie? Are you ok in there? Did I hurt you when I ran into you earlier? I’m sorry if I did, I’d hate to be the reason you get a bruise!”

“I assure you I’m just fine Galinda. Just got a bit wet from the rain. I hate the rain.”

“Well yeah, it looked pretty bad out there! Don’t hurt yourself in there ok? I still need to get ready for our next class together! Remember that Horrible Morrible has us taking Sorcery together!”

Elphaba had nearly forgotten about that. She didn’t particularly want to take that class, she was more interested in the hard facts and rigor of biology and the scientific method than the often fickle methods of magical manipulation. But Morrible insisted she use her ‘gift’, so guess she has to. Her family certainly didn’t see it as a gift, but a curse. Another while of brooding and she’s jolted out of her dissociation again by Galinda knocking on the bathroom door again.

“Come ON Miss Elfie, class starts in ten minutes! We gotta go now to make it on time! Are you sure you’re ok in there?”

With a heavy sigh, Elphaba wipes her oils off and dries herself off and goes to open the door. She didn’t expect Galinda to be right in her face when she pulled the door open, and it causes her to blush a bit. “I’m fine, Galinda, I swear. Sorry to have worried you.”

She can feel Galinda staring at her, again with the uncomfortable staring! The rash should have faded by now at least visually, even if it still stings!

“...Your nose is bruised, it’s nearly purple!”

“I assure you it’s nothing, I’m fine.” Elfie tries to push past her roommate but Galinda won’t budge.

“Did I hurt your nose? Was it my fault from earlier when I ran into you? Oh Elfie, I’m sor-!”

“Stop apologizing!!! You didn’t hurt me!!!! Now leave me be, I need to get my things for class!” With a glare Elphaba shoves past Galinda to gather her things. She’ll have to go back to the sciences building to get her other coursework back, she left in such a hurry. Without a second glance at the blondie, she rushes out with her bag and an umbrella to hopefully keep the rain off of her. Galinda can only stare in hurt and confusion as her roommate rushes off. Wow, the artichoke is really steamed today. And for good reason. Well, maybe by the time they both reach class, she can cheer the green bean up!


	2. Out of Oil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fiyero shoots his shot and misses, and Elphaba painfully realizes she's out of her oils - she and water don't like to mix. This chapter gets a bit more hurt and angsty but not too much hopefully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote bits of this over several days and then wrote a huge chunk of it this morning and just before posting and I'm not rereading it right now but I want to post it so have this in its unedited groggy glory. Point out any glaring errors and I'll fix them, I was supposed to get someone to be my beta but they're busy a lot of the time like I am so we haven't had much chance to go through and edit. Hope despite that that it's coherent though! Water allergies must really suck to have.

Elphaba manages to reach the class just as their teacher calls her name for roll, her nose an uncomfortable bluish color from the earlier rainfall incident. Having Madame Morrible personally tutor her and Galinda on sorcery isn’t exactly the most fun experience, but after she announced the trip to meet the Wizard, Elphaba can bear her a bit more. Going to see the Wizard has always been her dream after all!

Galinda’s characteristic smile widens at the sight of her still grumpy roommate, but getting snubbed by Morrible yet again puts her into a near scowl. She was the one who wanted to take sorcery, not greenie!! The moment their tutor looks back at her, her smile goes right back on. She’s all about appearances after all.

She hates to admit it, but Elphaba’s apparent natural knack for sorcery annoys her to no end! Galinda is here struggling to levitate the paperweight Morrible gave them to cast spells on while Elphaba is levitating it with ease. How come she gets all the natural talent but none of the drive, and Galinda got the opposite end of the stick?! Sorcery runs in her family, she should be good at this, but she has to actually Work Hard to do things right in this area of study! Oz forbid she have to study and actually think! 

By the end of their lesson, Galinda’s hand hurt from how tightly she was gripping her wand. There’s that feeling again, that thing she thought was loathing at the start of her knowing Elphaba, but definitely must be something more. Like a tightening of her chest, a weight on her heartstrings. No way is she  _ jealous _ of her roomie’s skill at this is she? No, she’ll just have to work harder until she beats her grades in this class!

Elphaba looks over from her levitating paperweight to find Galinda staring at her again. Always with the staring, this time with added glaring. Please stop glaring, she can’t exactly call her out in front of Morrible can she?

“Miss Galinda, how is your task faring?” 

Oh good, Morrible distracted her. She must’ve been staring at Elphaba’s nose, it still feels a bit itchy so the rash might still be there. It’s taking a lot of self control to not scratch at the water induced rash on her face. She watches as Galinda makes a final strained attempt at levitating the paperweight - she manages to lift it a few inches off the table before it clatters back - before the clock dings the hour signifying their allotted lecture time is over.

After telling Horrible Morrible goodbye, Elphaba follows Galinda out of the room and to the cafeteria for lunch. Earlier she invited Elfie to sit with her, since they  _ are _ friends now. On the way they bump into Fiyero, his thoughtless smile one his face as usual.

“I’m surprised they didn’t catch you earlier for our little stunt.”

“I’m hard to catch green bean, I’m quite an athletic guy! Don’t worry about the cub, I put him in a safe spot no Ozians would think to look!”

“....am I missing something or are you two actually  _ talking  _ to each other without insulting each other?” Galinda suspiciously glances between her roommate and boyfriend. Green bean doesn’t count as an insult at this point, it’s so overused.

Fiyeo sheepishly grins at Galinda before wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “Oh it was nothing really! Greenie and I just saved a lion cub from a life of captivity!”

“This was after we learned they had  _ Fired  _ Dr. Dillamond that this happened, it was quite a wild experience.”

Galinda’s usual smile falters at the mention of Dillamond - he never could pronounce her name quite right. “Oh, right…….well, I’ve decided…….to honor his memory by changing my name!”

The other two stare in confusion as Galinda’s face lights up with this idea. How the hell will a name change help?

“You see ...I've decided to officially go by  _ Glinda  _ instead of  _ Ga-linda _ to honor Dr. Dillamond’s….unique pronuncinitiation! To show my support for the Animals!” With a dramatic curtsy,  _ Glinda  _ looks up to see Elphaba and Fiyero staring in equal confusion before they both nod awkwardly.

“Sure…..yeah ...that works! Glinda! Galinda without the  _ a!”  _ With a peck on the cheek and a clap on the back Fiyero bounces away from her to stand by Elphaba for a parting moment. “Well,  _ Glinda,  _ my dear, I’ll leave you to deal with that whole shebang while I head out! Have fun with the green bean!”

Elphaba recoils away from him before he can try to touch her, and he just shoots them finger guns as he walks off. Usually he’d eat lunch with  _ Glinda  _ but it seems she’s with steamed artichoke for lunch today. With Fiyero gone, newly dubbed Glinda practically drags her roommate to the cafeteria. With enough encouragement from Glinda, Elphaba begrudgingly sits down with her salad at the table Glinda and her circle of friends sit at. Naturally they all glare at her with varying levels of suspicion and revulsion, all except for Glinda, who looks happy as ever sitting down next to Greenie with her food.

“Everyone be nice to my  _ roommate _ ok? I think it’s nigh time I get along with her better, since we  _ do  _ live together! So keep your negs to a miniminimum whilst she’s with us ok?”

Before any of them can protest, Glinda speaks up again to silence their grumbling. “Also, I want to announce that from now on I’m going by  _ Glinda  _ instead of  _ Ga-lin-da _ to support the cause of the Animals since, you know, Dr. Dillamond got  _ fired. _ ”

More grumbling, but they do nod in affirmation. “Well  _ Glinda _ , what’s with your sudden interest in  _ befriending  _ green bean? Living with her hasn’t stopped you from heckling her before!”

“Like I said, I’m changing that, I think I was perhaps a bit too  _ harsh  _ to  _ Elphaba _ here! Now play nice!”

Their lunch is spent in either silence or more grumbling, Elphaba knew coming with Glinda was a bad idea. Of course she’d only bring conflict. Glinda tried at least but old habits die hard. So to escape the awkward looks and silence, Elphaba quickly finishes her salad and bid the rest goodbye before hurriedly scurrying off to the library with her books to finally get a break from all this uncomfortable socializing. Glinda tries to stop her but quickly gives up and lets her go. Dammit, making her friends get along is way harder than she expected!

* * *

Elphaba holes up in her usual reading nook in the library and tries to make sense of Glinda’s sudden interest in her through her reading. What if her suspicions were right and Glinda is using this as a setup for another sick prank once she gains Elphaba’s trust? But then again, she  _ did  _ defend Elfie in front of her circle of friends. Glinda’s been acting awful weird around her lately, what with the staring and compliments and insistence for doing more “girl’s nights” with her. 

All this newfound friendliness is making Elphaba even more confused about her own feelings. Glinda luckily hasn’t caught Elphaba’s staring as much as Elphaba catches her staring. It’s hard not to stare at someone so perfect, so beautiful, so cute. Glinda makes her appearance seem effortless but Elphaba knows the effort that goes into looking  _ effortlessly beautiful _ , it takes long periods of makeup and hair brushing and hair  _ tossing  _ and outfit selection to go with the season and weather and - gosh a lot of effort goes into looking that flawless.

Elphaba would much rather spend her precious time studying and reading than fretting over her unavoidably green appearance. But watching Glinda work her magic - not literally, she’s still struggling with sorcery despite her failed claims that she could summon a ball gown for Elfie - captivates her. Even without makeup she finds Glinda beautiful, her face is perfect, her body has curves in all the right places without being too fat or thin, her hair always falls perfectly into place, and her outfits only accentuate her innate beauty. Internally Elphaba has admitted she  _ is  _ attracted to her roommate’s physicality, but she dare not voice that out loud to her, that may make their fragile new friendship dissolve into more awkwardness. Glinda’s got Fiyero, she’s got her boyfriend, there’s no way she’d ever find mean and green bookworm  _ appealing _ . Elphaba doesn’t view sam-sex attraction as wrong despite what her pious father drilled into her since a young age, but she knows other people may have similar viewpoints to him. What if Glinda reacted like her father did if Elphaba  _ did  _ admit her attraction? It’s too risky. Better bottle it up inside where it won’t hurt anyone.

  
  


Whilst in the library, Elphaba snags some books about fashion and the science of attraction off the shelves to read a bit more. Even if she won’t show it herself, she’d like to understand more about Glinda’s seemingly shallow interests and ways of easily making men swoon over her. The attraction book is quickly revealed to be a bunch of badly written drivel, so back on the shelf it goes, but the fashion book does have some interesting tidbits of knowledge. Skin colors can have specific ranges of fabric colors to go with them to compliment their complexion? But anything that goes with green would probably just accentuate the greenness to an obscene degree! Yellow, maroon, red, they’d just call more attention to her green skin. Color theory serves to accentuate and compliment, but isn’t there anything to obscure and hide the green? Anything? She knows Glinda likes to say Pink goes with Green, but the day she wears a pink dress is the day she’s no longer Elphaba! 

The sounds of footsteps approaching her takes her out of her thoughts and reading to see Fiyero approaching. What does he want This time?

“Hey greenie, so what did you do to  _ Glinda _ to get her to decide to be nicer to you? Did you blackmail her?” He walks up to sit beside her in the little reading corner. She stiffens at his presence and sits up straight to subtly scoot away from him.

“I did nothing of the sort!  _ Glinda _ decided to be my friend, not the other way around. If you think I  _ trust _ her already you’re sorely mistaken, after her pitiful excuse for pity at the ball for me. She has to try harder than this.” Elphaba opens her book back up to the page she was reading only to notice Fiyero hasn’t left, and is staring at her. Please go bother someone else.

“What do you want Fiyero.”

“What, can’t I just hang out with you? As a  _ friend?  _ Was the lion cub incident not enough to prove to you I’m not here to bully you constantly?”

“Sounds to me like you’re not as shallow and vain as you make yourself out to be.”

Fiyero gasps in feign offense. “Excuse you, I  _ am  _ as vain and shallow as I make myself out to be! It’s my defining trait, shallowness!”

“Yet you cared enough about an Animal to not only help  _ me  _ save it, but you took it upon yourself to hide it and lead the guards on a wild goose chase to save it! You  _ care _ , and I  _ appreciate  _ that, but I’m hardly someone you should want to be  _ friends  _ with.”

Elphaba can see redness reaching his cheeks as he stares nearly speechless at her, before he stammers back into his speaking. “Listen, I did that for  _ you _ ! I think you’re an intelligent and interesting girl, Elphaba! Far more interesting than  _ Glinda  _ ever is!”

That causes her to close her book to stare back at him, a puzzled frown on her face. Glinda’s his girlfriend, why is he ragging on her? Don’t tell her he likes  _ mean and green _ ?!

“Elphaba, the more I talk to you the more I  _ like  _ you! I just- I know I have an image of shallowness to keep up, I know Glinda and I look perfect for each other, I know she’d be a model wife, but she’s  _ boring _ ! She’s  _ too perfect!  _ You? You’re feisty, you have conviction and wit and if you get past the Mean and Green you’re  _ regal! _ Can’t you see? I-!”

“Fiyero, has it ever occurred to you that she’s putting up a front for you? You seem  _ perfect  _ to her so she puts up her mask of shallow perfection for even you, because she thinks you may dislike her for having interests outside what she publicly shows? In the short time she’s been friends with me I’ve learned that kindness in her isn’t just shallow appearances, she  _ cares,  _ and she  _ is  _ intelligent, just in different ways. I know next to nothing about fashion but she does, she’s told me what colors I should wear to look my best - not that I’ll take her advice. You and her are perfect for each other-“

“Don’t you ever let someone finish their sentences Elphaba? I was about to say I liked  _ you _ !!!” Fiyero gets on one knee, grabs her hand, and gives her the biggest puppy dog eyes he can manage. Elphaba stares wide eyed at him, flush spreading through her cheeks, as she stares nearly speechless at him. She opens her mouth to speak but closes it just as quickly. What the hell does she say to that?! Before she can try to formulate a response he continues.

“I  _ like  _ you Elphaba, I realized that when I helped you with the lion cub! You’re more fun to talk to than Glinda is, she’s all prim and proper girly, but your tomboy bookworm attitudes make you interesting! Please, if I broke up with Glinda, would you forgive me enough to be with  _ you? _ ”

She stares silently at him, that stare turns into a glare, that glare turns into a scowl. “Fiyero, I’m telling you right now, don’t dump my  _ friend  _ for  _ me _ . I’m inexperienced, I’m not romantic, I’m not interested in any romantic let alone sexual venture with  _ you _ , we’re barely even friends! If you like me so much get to know me better before trying that again! Be my friend! Not whatever image of a couple you had in your head!”

Fiyero’s smile slowly falls, and as it falls he lets go of Elfie’s hand and stands back up. “......Fine. But now you know. And knowing you, you’ll keep this little exchange a secret right? Please? I couldn’t stand keeping this bottled up, I had to tell you!  _ I can’t control who I feel attraction to, just my actions regarding them. _ See you later ...greenie.” With that he walks off, moderately disappointed and dismayed that his usual charms had no effect on her except to fluster and exasperate her. 

He thought all the times he saw her gaze longingly in his direction were because she likes him back, but he’s usually with Glinda when he sees Elphaba. Maybe she’s super possessive of her newfound friendship?  _ Jealous _ that he sees Glinda more than her? But there was  _ some  _ hope from that exchange, she didn’t just outright say she’d  _ never _ accept him. She’d just have to get to know him better first.

  
  


Elphaba let out a breath she forgot she was holding once he left, and with a huff buries her face back in her book. He used more eloquent rhetoric than she’d ever heard him use, he was definitely serious. And that scares her. Internally she knows she feels jealousy towards him not because Glinda stole him, but because  _ he  _ steals  _ Glinda  _ from her. That exchange just made her more certain of her attraction to her roommate, but she dares not admit it to anyone, she doesn’t know how the Vinkus feel about that kind of attraction. She knows the general consensus with Gillikins is that it’s not socially acceptable at best. Would Glinda slander her even more than before if she found out? Would she ruin all chances at a lasting friendship by saying anything? She’d rather keep a friend than ruin her friendship with romantic feelings. 

Her chest grew tight with all her muddied up feelings, and she finds her eyes are welling up with tears. No, don’t cry over a boy stealing the girl of your affections, you knew it was doomed from the start. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


Glinda tapped on her desk impatiently, her class after lunch was with Fiyero and he was late to class. Not uncommon for him, but still annoying. Finally he shows up and slides into the seat beside her, taking her hand to hold it under the desk. They exchange glances and smiles with each other whenever the professor isn’t looking, and once the bell rings a grueling hour later they skip out holding hands.

When she first met Fiyero, she thought he was perfect. They looked perfect together. But now? Her immediate draw to him has faded significantly since she befriended her roommate, maybe her roommate is making her think too much. If she didn’t know any better, she’d go so far as to say the feelings she initially had for Fiyero have somehow transferred to Elphaba. But that’s preposterous, they’re simply friends, she has Fiyero and she will be happy with him! She’ll probably marry him, that’s what her parents would want, for her to marry a handsome noble and give him happy children and happy home. But that little thought sticks in the back of her mind, the one where she’s got the same kind of butterflies she got from Fiyero’s smile from Elphaba. Well not the  _ same  _ butterflies, but butterflies nonetheless. It came on slowly, for at their first meeting she was definitely repulsed by Elphaba’s green skin. But now that she’s used to it, that it’s just another facet of her instead of the one trait she’s known for to Glinda, there’s so much more feeling. It can’t be normal to feel this way.

“Glinda? Sweetheart? I’ve asked you where you want to go eat three times already and you’ve been too busy staring into space to answer!” Glinda is snapped out of her internal conflict by Fiyero waving his hand in front of her face to get her attention. Right, she’s with Fiyero, her perfect boyfriend. 

“How about that nice cafe we went to last week? The one with a cannolis!” She plasters her usual smile back on her face for him, and leans up to peck him on the cheek. He beams down at her, though his smile doesn’t reach his eyes.

“Great choice! Shall we be on our way then?” As he ushers her towards the entrance of the campus to hail a carriage, they pass by Elphaba wheeling her little sister Nessa somewhere. Nessa seems to be talking her ear off with some religious doctrine nonsense, Elphaba looks totally disengaged from the conversation. Glinda waves at them as they pass, and a glimmer of a grin forms on Elfie’s lips. Close as she’ll get to smiling in public so far.

  
  


* * *

After delivering Nessa to Nanny for her to go to chapel, Elphaba heads back to her dorm room. She dumps her bag and books on her desk and heads into the bathroom to quickly bathe before her roommate makes any signs of returning, and is dismayed to find she’s almost completely out of her bathing oils. There’s not nearly enough for even a sponge bath, her damn supplier forgot to send any this week. 

That means she’ll have to do the painful alternative - use actual water. She has water soluble shampoo and conditioner for emergencies, she likes to stay clean even if it’s hard with this strange water allergy. With a deep breath to keep herself calm, Elphaba locks the door on the bathroom and strips down, then with bated breath, reached for the knobs by the faucet and turned on the water, adjusting it until the temperature is bearable. As quickly as she can, she hops into the tub and wets her hair and body as quickly as possible to apply her shampoo, then rinse it, then apply the conditioner.

By the time she’d gotten to the body wash the pain had started, blossoming on her arms and spreading to her torso and then her legs and neck and face. As soon as she washed the last sud off of her she turned the faucet off and drained the tub, stepping quickly to the towel rack to dry as much moisture off of her skin as she possibly can. Oz, it feels like a horrible sunburn on every inch of external flesh exposed to the water, at least her mouth and internals aren’t harmed, but the hives are already starting to raise on her skin. With her hair wrapped in a towel and her body forced into a nightgown - despite the burning pain every time the fabric touched her skin - she heads into her bed and collapses into it in a fetal position, gritting her teeth from the burning pain. 

Just give it a few hours, and she’ll be fine, and look like nothing happened at all. Like the oil she’d rather be using to bathe, she and water don’t mix. Even her tears and her skin don’t mix, it causes that burning sensation to intensify. Being burned with actual fire would probably hurt less than the burning of this water on her skin. What sick being thought it’d be a good idea to make her like this?! She’s never been religious, actively defying her father and sister’s religious doctrine in her teens and now, but it’s days like these that make her wonder if there  _ is _ some higher power watching specifically to cause pain and suffering. 

Another wave of pain cascades over her body, and Elphaba buries her face in her threadbare pillow to let out a pained groan. It’s been a while since she’s had to force herself to bathe with water, so the pain might stay longer than usual. It’ll be gone by tomorrow, please be gone by tomorrow. 

* * *

Just when the sun is setting, Glinda comes back to the dorm room after going out on the town with Fiyero after their lunch date and ate dinner with the rest of her friend group. She cheerily opens the door and walks over to her wardrobe to drop off all her fashionable purchases, and carries a box of cannolis from the cafe and sets it on her desk. Before she dramatically announces her arrival like she usually does, she sees Elphaba already in her nightgown….crying? She’s so bundled under the covers she can’t even see any part of Elphaba aside from her occasionally trembling form in the thin sheets. Did something happen? What’s wrong? She’s never seen her cry before, let alone be in the dorm before sunset without at least a book in hand. 

“Miss Elfie? Did something happen? Are you ok?” Glinda hesitantly walks over until she’s beside her bed, nearly reaching over to touch what she thinks is Elphaba’s shoulder until she remembers her comment about touch aversion and retracts her hand.

Elphaba makes no motion to turn around and say hi, but she does grit out “Leave me alone please, I feel sick right now.” before going silent again.

Glinda takes the hint and sadly treks back to her side of the room to start unpacking and trying on all of her purchases. She can hear the slow rustle of sheets as Elphaba pulls herself onto her side to face Glinda, only one of her bleary eyes poking out of the sheets. She silently watches through the pain, watches the maintained elegance of Glinda in all her various new outfits, watches her expertly remove that necklace she had such trouble with that morning and put it away, watches her slowly remove her layers of clothing until she’s in nothing but her chemise. Glinda turns around and Elphaba closes her one exposed eye to hide the fact she was staring. Glinda doesn’t seem to notice as she walks over to her desk and pulls out one of the cannolis wrapped in wax paper. She makes her way to Elphaba’s desk and places the sweet on top of the stack of books.

“I brought you a treat from the cafe I visited today, I hope you like cannolis. Hope you feel better soon Elfie!” Walking back to the box of sweets, she pulls out the other cannoli and quietly eats it as her dessert for the day before heading into the bathroom to get ready for bed. 

She notices bath was recently used, Elphaba’s shampoos and such are still on the sink counter. She’s never seen signs of Elphaba actually showering or using the bath let alone heard her turn the shower on, but she does see evidence of Some kind of bathing with rags and oily towels in a bin where the rest of Elphaba’s toiletries are. There are several empty bottles of what looks like oils on the counter, with scent labels of sandalwood and lavender and citrus, some kind of bathing oils. Glinda’s never paid much attention to Elphaba’s stuff in here other than the fact that everything she owns is kinda shabby and clearly hand-me-down. These scented oils explain why she always smells so nice at least. 

Observations aside, Glinda shrugs off the nosiness to take herself a long hot bath to wash away the strange day. Her thoughts keep drifting from the soothing warm water back to her roommate. She said she felt sick, did she catch a cold from the rain? Hopefully she feels better as quickly as possible!

Back in the main room, Elphaba ever so slowly untangled herself from the thin sheets to lean over to her desk to see what Glinda got her. Each brush of fabric made the still fiery skin flare up in pain, but it’s dulled down enough that moving isn’t impossible. Carefully she picks up the wrapped up cannoli and unwraps it. It’s an artfully decorated thing with chocolate chips pressed into the filling, with swirls of chocolate drizzled on the shell. As carefully as she can, Elfie picks up the sweet and tries a bite of it - of course it’s delicious. Sweet, smooth, chocolatey, with that nice crunch from the shell. She skipped dinner because she took that dreaded water bath instead of using her spent oils, so eating this makes her realize how hungry she is. She never eats that much anyways, but she finishes the cannoli rather quickly after cherishing that first bite. Glinda has good taste in sweets. She’s so sweet herself, she naturally has good taste! Wonder if she tastes as sweet as she looks….

Elphaba’s snapped back to reality by hearing Galinda singing some off-key tune in the bathroom, she must be having a fun bath. After throwing the paper the sweet came in into the trash bin, Elphaba slowly crawls back into bed so as to not flair up the still dully burning skin. It’s faded enough from the initial burning into the far more annoying itching - she can’t scratch at it lest she scratch herself to the point of leaving marks like she’s done before. A few times she’s scratched at her itching skin to the point of bleeding, and she doesn’t want to do that tonight. If Glinda wasn’t in the bathroom she could grab her lotions that help with the itching, but she’s in there right now. Twenty grueling minutes of writhing in itchy dull pain in the bed and she hears the bathroom door swing open and damp footsteps make their way to Glinda’s side.

“Oh! You ate the cannoli, how was it? I didn’t know what flavor you’d want so I just got the chocolate one!” Glinda smiles across the room with her hair wrapped up in curlers to help maintain their perfect curl for the next morning.

Elphaba does her best to still her body and sit up so she can face Glinda. By the time it only itches it usually has faded from the hives, usually only has blotchy places of rashiness. Pray her face has cleared up by now. She forces a smile on her face as she locks gaze with Glinda. “They were delightful, my  _ sweet _ . They’re sweet as you are.”

Glinda blinks at that bold new nickname, feeling her face warming up. She notices several small blotches of that blue-purple bruise color on Elphaba’s face, but that compliment threw her so off guard all she can do is stammer out an answer. “W-why thank you! I didn’t know you thought I was that sweet Elfie! Are y-ou feeling any better?”

She gets a silent nod in response. Elphaba’s smile falls as she bids Glinda goodnight and buries herself in the covers again, still occasionally shivering. From anyone else, Glinda could easily respond to such a flirtatious compliment with matched enthusiasm or wit, but from Elphaba? Usually she calls her airheaded or shallow or vain or just  _ blonde _ , but to call her _ her sweet _ ? She feels those butterflies in her stomach fly up into her chest. Maybe whatever sickness Elfie has made her loopy, there’s no other reason for her to be so  _ nice _ . 

Well, if she’s being nice now, Glinda might as well relish in it. She climbs into bed and falls asleep with that  _ my sweet  _ echoing in her head, warming her to her core. 

_ They say oil and water don’t mix _

_ But opposites sure attract... _


End file.
